Prisoners Of War

We believe that all prisoners are political prisoners. Sadly, however, we
could not hope to cover everybody inside, so below we have listed only a small
selection of long term direct action prisoners. It is vital that we support
these people. Life inside can be hard, but most of all it is just extremely
boring and isolating. By writing to a prisoner you can help to alleviate both.
Writing to someone you don't know may seem daunting at first, but it does get
easier. You could start by sending them a short note on a postcard to brighten
up their cell wall. Always remember that all mail is read by screws so don't say
anything that could incriminate you or others. For details of more ways you can
help to support prisoners, and for listings of short term or remand prisoners,
contact the London Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) or get a copy of Spirit of
Freedom newsletter (see Prison Support Organisations at the end of this article
for their contact details.)

UK Prisoners

Barry Horne VC 2141, HMP Full Sutton, Moor Lane,
York, YO4 1PS, UK. Animal liberationist sentenced to a total of 18 years for
arson at several premises on the Isle of Wight and attempted arson in Bristol.
Currently recovering following a 68 day hunger strike protesting against
vivisection.

Tony Humphries AP 7965, HMP Swaleside, Brabazon Road, Eastchurch,
Sheerness, Kent, ME12 4DZ, UK. Tony is an animal liberation activist who was
sentenced in March 1999 to 7 years imprisonment for conspiracy to cause
explosions and 2 years (to run concurrently) for possession of explosives.

Ellen Moxley, Ulla Roder and Angie Zelter are all at: HM Institution
Corton Vale, Corton Road, Stirling, FK9 5NU, Scotland after they broke into
a floating laboratory complex on Loch Goil in Scotland where the sonar signals
for Trident nuclear submarines are tested. They threw computers, printers, fax
machines, telephones into the water and destroyed a test room, an aerial antenna
and an outside winch. They are currently all on remand awaiting trial in
September 1999. For details of the outcome of this trial contact: Trident
Ploughshares 2000, The Greenhouse, 42-46 Bethel Street, Norwich, NR2 1NR, UK
Tel: 01603 611953 E-mail: reforest@gn.apc.org

Hillgrove Farm in Oxfordshire is the last breeder of cats for vivisection in
the UK. It has been the target of continuous direct action and demonstrations
for the last three years. There have been a number of people sent to prison for
various connected offences. For more details on the campaign against Hillgrove
Farm, and recent prisoner updates, contact: Save the Hillgrove Cats, Box CB, 111
Magadalen Road, Oxford, OX4 1RQ, UK Tel: 0121 632 6460.

Italian Anarchists

On 5th March 1998 Italian police arrested 3
anarchists on serious charges of subversive association for the purpose of
constituting an armed gang. They were accused of various cases of direct action
linked to the popular struggle against the construction of the high speed
railway through the Val Di Susa in Piemonte. Now only one of the 3 arrested
anarchists remains alive. Edoardo Massari, a 38 year old anarchist from Ivrea,
died in the Vallette prison in Turin on 28th March 1998. The authorities said he
had hanged himself with a bed sheet. Maria Soledad Rosas, 22 years old and from
Argentina, hanged herself on 11 July - choosing the same day and time to die as
her companion Eduardo. The anarchist and grassroots oppositional movements have
reacted to the deaths angrily and forcefully. On 4th April, in Turin following
Edoardo's death, there was a several thousand strong national demonstration, and
the day after Maria's death there was a street blockade there as well. The
surviving prisoner, Silvano Pelissero, undertook a month long hungerstrike until
on 22nd July he was finally transferred from the maximum security prison of
Novara to house arrest.

Orlando Campo, Via Delle Macchie 9, 57100 Livorno, Italy. Despite a
complete lack of evidence Orlando was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment for
allegedly participating in the kidnapping and eventual murder of a wealthy
Italian businessmans wife in 1990. Orlando has always maintained his innocence
of these charges. His sentence has been seen as the opening blow in the series
of frame-ups of Italian anarchists in recent years.

For more details on the repression and frame-ups experienced by anarchists in
Italy over the last few years get a copy of Uncontrollables - for a copy send an
A4 SAE and a donation for copying to: BM Ignition, London, WC1N 3XX, UK.

North American Prisoners

Albert Cinque Woodfox 72148, CCR Upper F
Isolation, LA State Prison, Angola, LA 70712, USA and Herman Wallace 76759,
CCR3, LA State Prison, Angola, LA 70712, USA. Albert Woodfox and Herman
Hooks Wallace are two former Black Panthers charged with the 1972 stabbing and
death of Brent Miller, a Louisiana prison guard. Hooks has received continual
harassment for his prison activism. In February 1999, after a sham re-trial for
the original 1972 conviction, Albert was sentenced to natural life with no
possibility of release.

Harold Thompson 93992, Turney Industrial Prison, Route 1, Only, Tennessee
37140-9709, USA. Harold is an anarchist who in 1979 was sentenced to life
and 50 years for the robbery of a jewellers, killing a police informer who had
murdered his partner and a shooting incident in Ohio. He was also later given an
extra 32 years for a failed escape attempt. An active jailhouse lawyer that
helps other inmates Harold has recently been brutally attacked, robbed and
placed in segregation for his own safety due to inmates from the racist White
Ayran Brotherhood working hand-in-hand with prison officials. Please write civil
letters on Harold's behalf to: Warden Jack Morgan, Turney Centre Industrial
Prison, Route 1, Only, Tennessee, 37140-9709, USA. Harold also needs around
£100 to file a lawsuit so, if you can, please send donations to: Friends
of Harold Thompson, PO Box 375, Knaphill, Woking, Surrey, GU21 2XL, UK. A
collection of Harold's writings and poetry entitled They Will Never Get Us All!
is available for £2.00 (including postage) from: Plain Wordz, PO Box 381,
Huddersfield, HD1 3XX, UK.

Leonard Peltier 89637-132, PO Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS 66048, USA.
Leonard, an American Indian Movement activist, was targeted as a subversive by
the secret Counter Intelligence Programme (COINTELPRO) operations and was framed
for the murder of two FBI agents in 1976 for which he is serving two consecutive
life sentences. Currently seriously ill he is being refused proper medical
attention. For more information contact: Leonard Peltier Defence Committee, PO
Box 583, Lawerence, KS 66044, USA.

Linn (Lenny) Chavez is a 36 year old American Indian Movement (AIM)
activist and Kiowa man. He was cutting wood at home when he was attacked by a
racist gang member. The man grabbed Lenny's chainsaw and was threatening him and
others with it. Fearing for himself and his family, Lenny drew his penknife and
inflicted minor injuries to the attacker. Whilst the racist went free Lenny was
charged with attempted murder. Letters of support and donations can be sent to:
Lenny Chavez, c/o South and Meso Indian Rights Center, PO Box 28703, Oakland, CA
94694, USA E-mail: saiic@igc.apc.org.

The eco-revolutionary group MOVE first surfaced in Philadelphia during
the early 1970s. They had an uncompromising belief in revolution. Living
communally they ate raw food, eschewed drugs and alcohol, helped homeless
people, staged demonstrations and attacked the government and system which they
saw as the root of all problems. As a result of their actions MOVE experienced
intense state harassment and repression. Members were savagely beaten - with
some of the women suffering miscarriages as a result - and during one attack by
the police a 3 week old baby had its skull crushed and died. All this culminated
in the 1985 siege and bombing of their commune by the police. During the
shootings and explosions that ensued six adults and five children were killed.
The survivors, known as the MOVE 9, were framed for the murder of a cop and
sentenced to a sentence of 100 years each. In 1998 one of the 9, Merle Africa,
died in very suspicious circumstances in prison. The others still imprisoned
are:

Mumia Abu Jamal AM8335, SCI Greene, 1040 East Roy Furman Highway,
Waynesburg, PA 15370-8090, USA. Ex-Black Panther, radical journalist and
MOVE supporter, Mumia was framed for the murder of a cop and is currently on
Death Row where his execution is imminent. For more information and details on
solidarity actions contact Mumia Must Live! at: 27 Old Gloucester Street,
London, WC1N 3XX, UK or look at the website at: http://www.mumia.org/

Robert H. Wilson 640289, Pack Unit One, 2400 Wallace Pack Road, Navasota,
TX 77869, USA. Robert Standing Deer Wilson is a Native American prison
activist now in his late 70s. In 1978 he exposed a government plot to
assassinate Leonard Peltier. He has been on hunger strikes to protest the
inhumane conditions of super-maximum prisons.

Silvia Barladini 05125-054, FCI Danbury, CT 06811, USA. A veteran left
activist who fought against the Vietnam war and in support of the Black
Liberation and Puerto Rican independence movements, Silvia is currently serving
43 years after being convicted of liberating Black Liberation Army prisoner
Assata Shakur and conspiracy against the US Government. She is in bad health due
to cancer and there is a campaign to get her paroled or transferred to her
native Italy. For details of this contact: Release Silvia, 3543 18th Street, Box
30, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA

For updates and news on all 'political' prisoners in the USA get a copy of
Raze The Walls! a quarterly magazine with a balance of writings by and about
prisoners and prison resistance in North America. It also has articles on
broader revolutionary theory and activity from a class struggle anarchist
perspective. For a copy send $3.00 to: Raze The Walls! 2351 College Station
Road, Box 523, Athens, GA 30605, USA

Australian Prisoner

Dennis Bruce Walker MIN245312, PO Box 656, Grafton
2460, NSW, Australia. Dennis is an Aboriginal activist who has been sentenced to
5 years for an incident that occurred whilst trying to protect an aboriginal
sacred site. Is currently waiting for an appeal and seeking a retrial.

(BOX) The GANDALF Trial Update

In January 1996, as a result of a massive joint
police and security services operation, four editors of Green Anarchist (GA)
newspaper and two people from the Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group
(ALFSG) magazine were arrested for conspiracy to incite persons unknown to
commit criminal damage. Over the next three years one person was found not
guilty, but three editors of GA were found guilty and sentenced to three years
imprisonment. They were eventually released on appeal and the remaining two
cases were dropped. The trial has enormous implications for anyone involved in,
or giving favourable coverage to, illegal direct action. (For more details of
this case see the letters on page 230 of this issue, page 129 in Do or Die No.
7, or write to Green Anarchist at: BM 1715, London, WC1N 3XX, UK.)

(BOX) Rod Coronado Released!

Rod is a Native American who was imprisoned in 1995
for a number of direct action activities. He's an inspiring person who has a
long history of taking militant direct action with Sea Shepherd, Earth First!
and the Animal Liberation Front. Here are some of Rod's thoughts on prison and
what it feels like to have been recently released:

"In March 1999 I left the Federal Correction Institution where I was captive
for nearly four years. I left prison, but I have not arrived in freedom.
Everyday I was imprisoned was a day of remembrance for me. Time to reflect on
the reality of being an indigenous guerrilla fighting neo-colonial forces in the
late 20th Century, and the cost such resistance required of all those indigenous
warriors the world over who have died defending the worldview that recognises
the Earth as our Mother. Only a hundred years ago my ancestors were fighting a
guerrilla war against Mexican soldiers and American colonialists. Our babies
heads were smashed against trees. Our women (those not actively up in arms) were
raped. Our warriors were hung with barbed wire. Just one hundred years ago. I am
fighting for what they died for. And I will never be free until all the Earth's
children are allowed to peacefully pursue an existence in harmony with Her
powers. If that means more prison, I am ready. If that means death I am
prepared. But the Invader will not take me or my resistance peacefully. Of that
I am certain.

We owe that much to our ancestors. To all who have been murdered, not died,
fighting for what we now also believe in. Earth First! and the Animal and Earth
Liberation Fronts are just contemporary manifestations of an ancient spirit and
economic globalisation is just the modern equivalent of Western European
Colonialism. The timeless continuum of the struggle between good and evil.

But I'll fight, not because I have to (many of us in the 'First World' don't
have to) but because I want to. I can think of no more honourable or noble
purpose to utilise this life for than to carry this torch of resistance a little
further. Realizing always that we can win simply by never surrendering. Freedom
to me may be something I personally never fully experience but, like my
ancestors, it's something I'm most willing to die for."

Prisoner Support Organisations

The following groups are the major prisoner support
organisations. For a more comprehensive list see Do or Die No. 7, page 136. If
writing to any of them enclose an SAE, or a donation if you can afford it, as
they all run on peoples wages or giros and so are usually broke.